Killings of the Alley Cats
by Amberleaf le Haunt
Summary: "The alley cats…. They're taking over the forest and city! They don't kill us or keep us as slaves because they need to. Oh, no. They like torturing, and they love to kill…." Spoken like a true slave.
1. Prologue

** . . . . Hiiiii, and welcome to my new story! ^.^; I wanted to write a story about alley cats and their slaves, so here you go~! ^.^; I promise to update this one as often as I can (even with the length the chapters are going to be - 4000+ words in some cases, perhaps)! :3 **

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Prologue

Four figures suddenly melted out of the shadows of a forest, one from each end: north, south, east, and west. They sat down around a rock in the center of the clearing, and suddenly a black shape leaped down from the sky without a sound. The figure in the west end flinched, but the rest stayed perfectly still and silent, eyes fixed on the figure on top of the rock in the center of the clearing.

"You know what I expect of you, right?" The voice was dark and commanding.

"We know, yes." The four figures bowed their heads.

"Good. You know where I want you to go, correct? You know where it is? I trust you were listening when I told you of your mission earlier." The center figure glared at the shape in the west corner, which of whom was looking down. "You. West. Were you _listening_ to me?" The voice was harsh and unforgiving; the words grated like ice does against the side of a car.

"Y-Yes," came the quiet reply.

"Good. Repeat it to me."

"We know what you expect of us. We should know where you want us to go, and you trust we were listening when you told us of our mission earlier," said figure recited.

The center shape nodded slowly. "Good, good. I trust you all get it?" A glare was cast across the clearing, and the faces of each corner figure showed fear as the center figure's eyes landed on them. "Excellent. Go. I expect you back before dawn."

Just as quickly, the clearing emptied. The four figures abruptly turned and vanished into the bushes of the forest, and the shape on the rock was left staring up at the cold sky.

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**Ooh-hoo-hoo... SPOOKY! ^.^; Confused? You'd better be... Review, and maybe I'll be nice and _try_ to finish Chapter 1 before the Civic Holiday is over! :3 **


	2. Chapter 1

**Ermkay. If this sucks, too bad. XD I mean, I wanted to get _something_ out...! ^.^;**

**Also, I did NaNoWriMo last month. And, guess what - I won! :D**

**50,000 words. ^.^; And I won! :3**

**_Yesssss._**

**Oh, and I also read Night Whispers yesterday, although it took me about 7 hours. T.T; I wasn't allowed to go on the Internet yesterday, so I kind of just started reading out loud, like, you know, whispering, and... yeah. It took a while. XD**

***SPOILERS!***

**But... ARGHH! What the hell? Why did Flametail die?**

***/SPOILERS!***

**Anyways. Here you go, the first chapter for KotAC! ^.^; I hope you enjoy! :3 I'm also not going to update Unfair Labor for a while, simply because I'm too lazy (and I didn't get the number of reviews that I was happy with)! Ooh, and I'm having a bit of a writer's block, especially after NaNo. ^.^; Actually... I'm working on the 100 OneShots challenge! :3**

**Blah, this sounds demented. D:**

**In any case... _enjoy_! ^.^;**

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Chapter 1

The night was silent. The sky was black except where it was lit up by the harsh yellow glow of the streetlights lined along the road, separated by perfectly calculated distances.

A sleek, dark figure slid out of a tiny hole in a small overturned oil barrel. It was once down at the city marina, but before the humans could put any oil in it, a hole was discovered in the bottom and it was left just outside the marina gate for a period of time. Some people used it as a trash can; others just ignored it. One day, it disappeared. It was later discovered, empty and filled with rain, in the alleyway. Then it was just left there for a time.

Wind and rain battered it, and one day, after a drought, came a particularly violent windstorm which pushed it over and somehow sent it into a small alleyway, where it got stuck. Only the head peeked out, and the hole was barely visible because of the grass surrounding it.

Now the alley cats had taken it, and in this particular alley lived the leader of the alley cats, a small dark tortoiseshell queen by the name of Mogul. Picked up by the shelter when she was only a kitten, she managed to escape and flee to the dark alleyways of Toronto, Ontario, in a place where humans hardly ever traipsed.

The small cat leaped on top of a large, empty, long-abandoned Dumpster and took a deep breath so she could yowl loudly enough to be heard by all the other cats living in the general vicinity of the small alleyway.

"I call this meeting to order," she called calmly.

There was a rustle, a few voices at the far end of the territory, and then many cats, she-cats, toms, and queens, all of different shapes and sizes, converged in a great mixed group below her. Kittens sat silently at their mothers' paws; they knew of Mogul's great strength and of the cats that followed her, and knew what was expected of them. Otherwise, great punishments were to be suffered. Adult toms and queens jostled for space with each other, sometimes glaring at each other, but not raising a claw. Finally, the cats were settled in their various comfortable—and sometimes uncomfortable—positions. They stared up at her expectantly.

"Do you know why I have called you here?" Mogul asked loudly. She held up something with her claws.

The cats stared at it. Some were not sure what it was; some, on the other hand, were far too familiar with it from their days living with humans and then at the various shelters scattered around the city.

All the cats were silent, scrutinizing the object and then figuring out what to do. However, then one cat had the guts to call out, "Is it a collar and a leash?"

Mogul nodded approvingly at the gray-and-white tom. "Well guessed, Sludge," she praised, nodding. "What you said was correct. This long blue thing here—" she raised it with one claw "—is the leash. With this, you just either take it in your mouth or wrap it around your paws to hold it. This red thick circular thing here—" she dropped the leash and held up the other object "—is a collar. See the little bell on it?" She shook the collar, and the bell jingled, sounding very loud through the still night where no cat made a sound. "This is so you know where the cat wearing the collar is at all times. You only have to listen; the little bell will do the rest." She paused for a moment; then she took a deep breath and continued. "There's also a little hook on it that you can attach a leash to." She gazed calmly around the clearing, looking at all the cats in turn. Some looked away nervously, while others held her gaze for a moment until she looked to the next cat. "Any questions?"

Collective sighs of relief were heard as one cat spoke up, and Mogul focused all her attention on the speaker. "What will we be using them for?" asked a small white cat. She was only eight months old, but she was wise beyond her years. Mogul reckoned she got it from listening to the older cats so much.

"Lovely, lovely question, Snowy Tail," Mogul said, nodding. "Well, here is the answer. The basic rundown of it is that we will be attacking the Clans and taking them as prisoners. The cats will constantly stay on leashes when they are not working for us as slaves, bringing us food and the like. The leashes will be tethered to something—anything heavy will do, really—near the cat that owns the den. Now." She nodded at something near the edge of the crowd. "I see that my warriors have returned with a kitten. This is a kitten from DarkClan. They live at the outskirts of the city, far out of our territory. I'll be demonstrating on this cat. Bring him up, please." It was an order.

Cats turned to see the mysterious newcomers. Four large black tomcats held a small white kitten with black stripes. It was cowering at their feet. Some cats gasped. This kitten looked to be only three months old!

The warriors who had taken the kitten escorted it somewhat roughly forward. It tripped once and a warrior hissed, "Get up!" The kitten stared at him fearfully and continued onward, picking its way only somewhat daintily among the rough stones covering the ground. The cats parted to both sides, marking a clear lined path for the kitten and the warriors.

Finally, the kitten leaped over a small rock, and the warriors surrounded him as he stared up at Mogul, unblinking. He had put his head down as he sat up, but now his head was held high and his ears were pricked forward as he announced, "I'm not scared of you. I'm Stripekit, from DarkClan! My Clan will—"

He had been about to say, "_My Clan will come and save me, and rip you all to shreds in the process!_" but he didn't get the chance as one of the four black cats surrounding him whacked the right side of his head with unsheathed claws, whipping it to the side, and hissed, "Shut up, you worthless little kitten! You work for us now! None of this _Clan_ nonsense!"

The kitten looked up at Mogul with a fearful look now in his blue eyes. She narrowed her eyes viciously, looking in his direction, and then composed herself to say, "Midnight is right. You now belong to us. You work for us. You will have to do whatever we say, and call us your masters."

The kitten spat, looking very small all of a sudden, "That's against the warrior code!"

"_Quiet!_" roared Midnight again, this time bowling the kitten over and exposing his soft and tender belly fur. "You will not defy us!" He raised one paw, the other still busy keeping the tiny cat pinned down, and unsheathed his sharp claws. The kitten's eyes widened. He watched the claws in horror as they hovered close to his face; he let out a long, loud sigh of relief as Midnight sheathed his claws yet again; his entire body relaxed.

An earsplitting scream cut through the alleyway.

Midnight had unsheathed the claws on the paw currently on the kitten's stomach, and his claws had sunk right in.

Small beads of blood pooled out around Midnight's claws. Midnight curled them farther into the kitten's belly, eliciting sharp gasps of pain from the young tom, and suddenly ripped his sharp talons right out of the tender body. The skin tore as blood and small chunks of flesh flew into the air and landed in various places; some fell at Midnight's feet, and some stuck to his chest fur. While he did this, he cackled evilly.

Another shriek of pain tore through the area; it bounced off the humans' windowless warehouse walls, echoing ominously around the gathered cats.

By this time, the little kitten had come to his senses and knew that he'd had enough.

"Please," he pleaded. "Let me go! I promise that my Clan will never hunt in the Twolegplace again! We didn't know that this was your alleyway! I—"

"Enough." Mogul strode gracefully towards the pair, using her paw to gently lift Midnight's now sheathed paws off of the kitten's belly. "I think he got the idea. Sit up," she ordered the kitten. He did so, trembling slightly, and sat up straight to face her.

Mogul nodded at Midnight to back away. Once he did so, she asked, "What is your name, little kitten?"

"K-Kitten?" Stripekit was confused. "What's that?"

Mogul sighed. _This might be harder than I thought._ "Kitten is your word for kit. Although you are no longer a kit, kitten, or a cat, or whatever you want to call yourself. You are now a slave."

"Slave?" the little kitten interrupted. "What's the Clan's alternate word for that?"

There was a short silence in the alleyway, with every single cat seeming to hold their breath, and then Mogul softly replied, "There is none."

Stripekit was shocked. "D-Do… you mean…. Do you mean that the Clans don't have slaves?" he blurted out, perhaps slightly too loudly.

"Yes, slave. That is what I mean." Mogul's reply was short and to the point.

"So… what are slaves?" the kit ventured.

Mogul rolled her eyes. "You really _don't_ know anything!" She let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "Basically, all cats are born with a worth. Some cats have a lot of worth; others have next to none. It depends on how soft you are. Now, Clan cats are often very soft, so you all have the least worth. The most inferior will be eliminated completely; the ones with hunting skills and the like will be hunters who work for our Clan. They also must be strong. Clan she-cats who are strong and good hunters will often have kits with another slave tom that is also strong and is also a good fighter. By selectively breeding our cats and not inbreeding slaves by forcing them to mate with their siblings, we separate the strong from the weak and therefore work up an excellent force to help our Clan." She eyed him with a menacing frown. "Any questions?"

"Just one," Stripekit admitted.

Mogul stepped forward and sank her claws into the kit's left ear, causing him to gasp in pain, and his whole body to tense. "Questions are severely frowned upon when asked by slaves," she snarled. "But, go ahead," she mewed a second later, suddenly back into her normal voice.

Stripekit inwardly shivered. _What an amazing technique! She's all nice and kind one moment, and, although you don't realize it, manipulative,_ he realized. _However, the second you're far enough away so as to not be rescued by any cat, she turns mean, cruel, and overpowering! It's even better when you least expect it! How genius! Although it _does_ hurt,_ he admitted to himself. He looked up at Mogul calmly.

She pushed his head down sharply. "Look scared, slave! You must _be_ scared! It is against the Law of Slaves to look directly at their master without a look of fear in their eyes! Anything else is seen as defiance, and is strictly punished!" she hissed.

_Okay, so now I have even _more_ questions! Great!_ Stripekit thought sarcastically.

Stripekit tilted his head down slightly, and lowered his eyes down to his paws as he asked in a loud enough voice to be heard even from that position, "Why am _I_ considered worthless? DarkClan is the strongest Clan in the forest! We always have the best, and biggest, numbers of kits, and we can survive in the darkness and the cold of leaf-bare better than any other Clan! I think that you should have chosen a _LightningClan_ cat as a slave, not me!" By now, he was squeaking indignantly, in the traditional angry voice for kittens all over.

The cats watching the pair talk over the kitten's new predicament, upon hearing the slave's opinion, let out a collective gasp. Breaths were taken in sharply. Cats curled their tails tighter around their paws. Some younger kittens' tails bushed out completely.

Mogul let out a snarl and leaped onto the kitten, bowling him over onto his back. His entire pelt, including his tail, was bushed out as Mogul stood over him, her pretty—well, he assumed it to be; when she wasn't mad, anyway—face twisted into a horrible snarl.

"How _dare_ you defy me?" she spat. "How _dare_ you? Slaves _have_ no opinions!"

Stripekit was horrified. "But I'm a cat! Of _course_ I have an opinion!" he cried, earning him a belly rake. He screamed, unable to hold in the instinctive show of his pain.

"No," snarled Mogul, "you are not a cat; you are a slave. Slaves may take the form of cats, but they are not, at heart, _cats_." She spat out the word. "I'd suggest that you get acquainted to that fact, and quickly!"

Stripekit cowered beneath her, trembling. "Please don't hurt me!" he cried. Cold green eyes stared down at him; they could freeze cats, if they wanted to! "Master," he added, in a shaking voice that sounded nothing at all like his usual tone.

Mogul purred, pleased. "Good. Very, very good! Now." Her eyes narrowed viciously down at him. "Obey! Obey me! Obey the Alley Cats!"

"I…. I…," Stripekit stammered; his eyes were wide and terrified.

"Say you work for us! Say you obey us! Say we can do whatever we want to you!" Mogul hissed. She raked her claws down his belly again.

"I work for the Alley Cats! I obey you! I'm not a cat! I'm a slave! You can do whatever you want to me, and I won't care!" Stripekit shrieked. It's not like he actually believed it, though. He realized he was saying it more to save his own hide than anything else.

"Good! Good," Mogul said, nodding approvingly. "That's better than what happened to our last slave. We called her a variety of different names." She purred. "She hated Slave Creature the most. It signified that she was not a cat, but a slave. She called herself Lilypaw, although she got a fierce punishment every time she did that in front of one of us. In fact, she was very useful up until two days ago, when she broke her leg in an accident with a human car and became a mere cripple. We had to—no; we were _forced_ to, as damaged slaves are, well… useless—kill her. Would you like to see what happened to her?" There was a gleam in Mogul's eyes that suggested that Stripekit would be forced to see the dead slave either way. He nodded slowly, hoping to evade punishment by pleasing her.

"Y-Yes, Master. I would like to see her," he said quietly.

Mogul purred loudly. "Excellent! But that can be done in a moment. Midnight South?" She addressed Stripekit's former tormentor. "Hold him down, please. You are all going to watch my demonstration of how the collar and leash is used correctly on a cat." She leaped on top of the Dumpster and grabbed both items, clipping the leash to the collar. "Bring the slave up here, please, Midnight." Midnight obliged, dropping the slave onto the Dumpster and then backing away, back into the crowd.

"Sit. Put your head up," Mogul ordered. Stripekit sat. He was quickly learning that doing as he was told might _just_ help him evade punishment. Mogul picked up the collar and held it above Stripekit's head, making sure the leash did not get in the way. She quickly tipped his head up with a claw and slid the mouth of the collar first over his nose, and then she quickly pulled it down over the rest of his head, scratching and flattening his ears as the rough, broken leather material scraped down over his head. Finally, it was on his neck. However, it was still pretty loose. Mogul saw that she would have to demonstrate to her Clan the correct way to tighten a collar. She was glad that she had done so much experimenting with it herself, too!

"To tighten it, you take this little end piece here. It's stuck on a small stick to hold it in place, see?" She demonstrated the tiny little stick to her followers as best as she could. "Lift up the end, slide it back underneath this little metal bar, here, and lift up the stick to pull off the collar end. Then, you pull the collar to make it tighter. There are little holes in the collar end that you can use. In this case, we're using the first hole, the one closest to the collar end." She poked through it with her small claw tip. "We are now realizing that there are five holes, and we are pulling the collar end over to the fifth hole." She quickly fastened it in place. "You put the collar end back on the stick and slide the end underneath the bar again."

Stripekit's kitten-blue eyes were wide, almost bulging out, and he was rasping for breaths. Mogul smiled at him, although there was nothing sympathetic in her gaze. Instead, it was a viciously pitying kind of gaze, the kind that makes you want to squirm and cry as you realize that the cat issuing you that look wants to show you no mercy.

"Too tight? Oh, I'm sorry." She flicked her tail at him. "Too bad; you'll just have to live with it!" She took the leash end and stuck her paw through the little handle opening; she then wrapped the rest of the leash around her paw so that it pulled taut. At this point, Stripekit was practically leaning towards the ground as he strained not to fall over from Mogul's too-tight grip.

She smiled pityingly at her slave. "Now, would you like to see your dead companion slave, or would you like to end up like her?" Her voice was teasing, light, on the outside; any cat who didn't know her like Stripekit now did would miss the dangerous undertone of her words.

Stripekit, in his desperation, mewled, "I'd like to end up just like her, please!" He wanted to try to see if he could make them torture him, and then act dead long before he really was so that he could slink off and escape.

There was a long, shocked silence in which all the members of the Alley Cats turned their eyes up to Mogul's position on the Dumpster and just stared, either at Mogul, Stripekit, or his leash and collar.

Mogul, seeing right through his plan but deciding to get his hopes up anyway, mewed, "Really? Then so be it." Stripekit's heart leaped with joy. She'd fallen for it! But his relief was short-lived. He was crushed a moment later when Mogul mewed, "However, it will not be so right now. Oh, no. You have lots of work to do, and we went to a lot of trouble picking you out, you know!" Stripekit's eyes widened to what most of the Alley Cat members guessed must be at _least_ around the size of saucers, seeing as how his eyes were already wide and bulging out from the pressure of the collar around his neck. "You… you've been… _stalking_ me?" he choked out.

"Well, not stalking, really," purred Mogul. "More like… watching. No, _evaluating_. Seeing who had the most slave spirit in the entire young members' range of the Clans. Well, more accurately, _DarkClan_ was the Clan we were watching. But, still…." She was still smarting over the slave's blatant attempt at fooling her into thinking he was dead, and therefore shaming her, and she didn't choose her words quite as carefully now; she didn't sound quite as professional. It was noticeable to everybody; even to her own ears, she didn't sound quite right in the head.

"So you've watched me since I was born, and you just thought that _tonight_ was a good night to take me?" Stripekit was still beyond horrified.

"Yes!" Mogul purred. "I didn't get made the leader of this place for nothing, you know! Of _course_ tonight was the perfect night to strike, because the Clans are gathering in Queens Park!"

Stripekit shook his head to clear it. "Oh, right! I had forgotten until now!" he said out loud, in a somewhat croaking voice because of his collar, without meaning to. He widened his eyes in surprise when he realized that he had spoken out loud, instead of just inside his head.

Mogul laughed. "Of course. _Forgotten._" She spat out the word. "Weren't you just a _bit_ jealous of your older and apprenticed and warrior Clanmates when you fell asleep earlier tonight? Well, of course, _now_ you've forgotten, since this is a far more interesting thing to happen to you! Well? Is it not?" she inquired icily, staring at him fearsomely.

Stripekit started to stare back at her, before he remembered that doing so would get him tortured, and so he stared back down at his paws again. _Well, interesting it may be, but certainly not _fun_! Or even in the least _amusing_! Or exciting! Or adventurous!_ Stripekit thought. _The list can go on, and on, and _on_!_ He knew this for a fact; it was interestingly scary or horrific, but not a word conveying even the _least_ bit happiness! Stripekit nodded his head slowly.

"Far more interesting, my Master," he admitted, in a trembling voice. He wanted to kick himself for the public show of weakness! However, he knew that, in this Clan, surrounded by all these cats who wanted to torture him, that he already _was_ weak, but he didn't mention it.

Mogul seemed to know what he was thinking, though. "Feeling weak already, eh? Well, how about we take you to see your fellow slave to boost your strength a bit, hmm?" She cackled evilly in a way that suggested that it would not serve to make him feel any more strong _or_ happy; in fact, it'd probably just make him feel queasy! He was the kind of cat to easily become that way, he noted unhappily.

"S-Sure. Let's go see her!" he said, a little too loudly. Mogul jumped off the Dumpster, squeezing the collar around his neck slightly as the force pulled him downwards, as well. He fell on top of her and writhed around on the ground, screaming, as she got up quickly, flipped him over, and raked her claws down his chest a couple of times.

"_Never_ fall on top of me!" she snarled. "Always pay attention to where I am, and make sure to land _beside_ me! Let's hope that you take this warning to _heart_!" Mogul spat in his face, then let him get to his feet as she faced the crowd.

"It's obvious that this one will have a _lot_ of learning to do!" she announced. The crowd roared with laughter, aimed at _him_, and Stripekit felt the tips of his ears burn as he was publicly embarrassed in front of cats who wanted nothing more than to cause him maximum pain. In fact—and he shuddered at this thought—they'd probably _also_ gladly cut his ears away just enough so that he could still hear the insults aimed at him, but nothing else! He wondered if that was possible, and he shivered just thinking about it.

"Come on, _slave_," Mogul said, emphasizing the word to really drive it into Stripekit's head, and burn it into his memory for later. He bowed his head, and followed slowly after her.

"Yes, Master." The words were spoken in a small voice, meek and obedient. Mogul threw back her head and cackled evilly upon hearing this, and she yanked at his leash, tightening the collar around his poor neck, pulling him onwards.

Stripekit wondered what he should do now. Can_ I even do anything, in the wake of all this? I'll have to meekly accept and take seeing this 'Lilypaw's' body that they show me once we get to wherever she is,_ he thought. _After that, I'll see what their plans are and, if they are, indeed, planning to attack the Clans, find out if I won't just be able to warn them once we attack the camps!_ He was pleased with this little plan of his, he had to admit. It was wise _and_ he could easily hide it from the Alley Cats that he'd warned the first Clan they attacked!

_Hopefully, the Clans will even move away before the next attack,_ he thought. _Then, there, they can regroup in peace!_

"Hurry up, _slave_!" snarled Mogul, turning around and tugging at his leash. He stumbled a bit before following her at what was now a more steady pace. Just how long _was_ this trip going to take, anyways? He felt like they had been walking for _ages_!

His paw pads were already burning from walking on the hard, cruel pavement for so long. _How can these other cats stand it?_ he wondered idly. He had figured out a way to take long, deep breaths so that he wouldn't make the collar constrict any farther around his throat by expanding his neck. He was smart that way, he knew. His father had always said that, one day, he'd grow up to be the most feared warrior in DarkClan! Whenever the Clans gathered in Queens Park, all the cats would worship him!

It was a nice thought, but…. _Now that'll probably never happen!_ Stripekit thought. He walked along in stony silence. _These cats have ruined my destiny! _My_ destiny! They had no right to do that!_ he silently steamed.

They walked along in silence for a bit longer. Well, actually, only Stripekit was silent. Mogul was talking to Midnight, and the rest of the Alley Cats, following behind them, were also murmuring in quiet tones, talking to each other in meaningful conversations as well.

"How do you think he'll react?" murmured one cat to another. They were right behind him. Stripekit tried not to prick his ears, as then they'd know that he was listening. It was difficult, but he managed.

The second cat laughed with a loud, hearty _mrrow_. "He'll probably scream in horror and beg to go home!"

"Heck, yeah!" the first cat agreed with a chuckle. "That's just the way young cats, especially kittens, are! I can't _wait_ to torture him!"

"I think he'll mostly be Mogul's slave, though," the second cat warned.

The first cat scoffed, "Who cares? Mogul isn't _always_ hungry, right? She's constantly planning, and then she leaves the slave in someone else's care, because he can't overhear her plans! He's already not going with her to attack the Clans; at least, not DarkClan! Come on, Whisker; have some common sense!"

The cat that Stripekit now knew as Whisker mewed, "Hey! I'm just thinking with some common sense! Besides, if she is busy, then she'll probably get Midnight or one of the other three Burlies to take care of him!"

_Burlies? What are those….? What are Burlies?_ Stripekit now wondered. He wasn't quite sure if he was allowed to talk to those cats, but he strained to turn around his head to croak out, "What are Burlies?"

Whisker laughed out loud, a sharp _mrree-ow-ow-ow_. "Did you hear that, Giggle? He wants to know what Burlies are!" Whisker was a small, skinny light brown tabby tom with a hint of orange in his coat, and large, strong amber eyes. His fur was not very short, like most cats', nor very long. It was somewhere in between. His fur looked almost kit-soft, but you could tell by the size and shape of this cat, not to mention by his voice, that he was at least twelve moons old.

_Just past warrior age, really,_ thought Stripekit.

"Have you never heard of the Burlies? At _all_?" hissed Giggle, who was a lean short-haired queen with pale orange fur and darker tabby stripes. Her tail was long and skinny, and had a white tip at the end. Her underbelly paled considerably to one of the palest ginger colours Stripekit had ever seen in a cat, and she had plain green eyes, averagely sized.

Stripekit shook his head at her question, retching slightly when the collar tightened around his neck bones. He let out a wheezing breath, then, gasping slightly for air, turned around. He pricked his ears in the direction of the two cats, who were talking to him.

"I can't believe the _slave_ hasn't heard of _Burlies_! They are some of the most feared cats around the city!" exclaimed Whisker.

"Oh, well. It doesn't matter. We might as well explain so that the slave knows that he should be… obedient." Giggle's eyes glinted dangerously. She began to explain:

"Burlies are the four most trusted cats of the leader, who in this case is Mogul. They are always black and strong and are always related to the previous Burlies before; if at all possible, they will be one of the other Burlies' first litters. There are four different coveted strengths that each Burly has one of; each Burly also represents East, West, North, or Souths. Each Burly has two names, their own, well, name, and then their last name, which is the direction they represent.

"The strengths that each Burly can have are excellent swimming and ability to stay underwater a really long time, an ability to find anything within a two-kilometer radius, an ability to run really fast and swoosh up trees, and excellent fighting skills."

"Are there any she-cat Burlies?" Stripekit asked.

"Not usually. If a Burly's daughter shows great strength, however, they may become a Burly. They have to be one of the first litter, though, and that litter must be only she-cats," Whisker explained. "She-cats often aren't as strong as toms, though."

Giggle glared at him. "Hey! Just saying," Whisker protested, albeit somewhat nervously. "I mean, it's the leader's opinion!"

"And the leader isn't always right," Giggle muttered. Whisker looked at her, bemused. "Hey! Just saying," she protested.

"Don't let Mogul hear you say that," Whisker joked.

"I won't," Giggle promised, although her tone could hardly be perceived as earnest, Stripekit mused. Giggle then looked over and saw Stripekit looking at her, and she snarled, "Don't think that just because we're explaining the customs of the alley cats that we're going to be nice to you later on, _slave_. I mean, we could have left you in the dark, and let you suffer. But I didn't feel like staying silent, so I talked to you. Got that, _slave_?" She swiped a paw at Stripekit's face, and although he jumped back, the claws just scored beneath his eyes. He shook away the few drops of blood that beaded up along the edges of the wound.

Stripekit dipped his head. "Y-Yes. I do."

Suddenly, Mogul looked back, tugging on the leash and growling at him, "Come _along_, _slave_!" He was once again practically dragged along by his neck as all slack on the leash disappeared.

"Are we almost there?" he gasped.

"Oh, definitely." Mogul looked back at him and smirked. "It'll just be a moment."

And a moment it was, for the next second, they entered a small clearing. It wasn't even really that; it was more of a rounded end to an alley way, between a few windowless buildings. These cats had even had the sense to conduct their operations between—some abandoned, some not, and some even still in full use—the windowless warehouses! No wonder nobody had ever captured them—they seemed to appear, and then disappear into the night just as quickly.

_So _that's_ why cats were sometimes sighted, but never found,_ Stripekit realized. However, he didn't have time to realize anything else before Mogul abruptly stopped.

Stripekit stumbled to a stop, looking up at the cat who wanted him to call her his Master. "Look down," Mogul repeated. His eyes widened slightly. Stripekit suddenly realized what he was going to look upon. "Look down!" Mogul repeated. "Or do I have to shove your head into the middle of the body?"

"No, Master," he murmured quietly, dipping his head to her and then turning his head to look down and in the direction of the body. Now he wished he hadn't, that he'd just closed his eyes, and left it at that. Before him lay the emaciated, lifeless body of what might have once been a beautiful white she-cat. You could see every single rib showing, and the body hadn't fully started decaying yet. Wounds and scars covered every single inch of fur, and half of the right ear was missing. The tail seemed to be missing a few bones. The face was hollowed out, the cheeks seemingly sucked in.

Pools of dried blood surrounded the she-cat, and most of her body—no, wait, make that pretty much her _entire_ body—was red with blood. Oh, yes. The way the she-cat was positioned, and the sight of her face—missing both eyes, Stripekit realized with a shiver—made it clear of the fear she'd felt, and of the pain she'd gone through, in the few moments before she died.

_So…,_ he thought, trying to sound and feel idly curious, even in his head, _…this… is Lilypaw._

"I present you with our former slave," Mogul announced. She prodded Stripekit, obviously expecting him to say something. Up until now, he'd kept his mouth shut; he knew that if he spoke, he'd probably retch everywhere—and all over the body, too. However, he had no choice—he had to speak.

"I—I—" he croaked out.

"Ooh! Burly got the _slave's_ tongue?" a cat teased from behind him. Stripekit couldn't be sure, but it sounded like Giggle. He felt the tips of his ears grow hot.

"Well?" Mogul was beginning to get impatient. She slapped him on the side of the head with an unsheathed, clawed paw. "Say something!"

"I, umm—" He practically choked on his last words, the side of his head stinging from the pain of the slap. "I—I understand—will this happen to _me_ someday? Will I die like this?" The thought filled him with unbridled horror.

"Only if you're disobedient." Mogul's eyes glinted dangerously. "_Too_ disobedient. Or, another way… is if you become a cripple. If you're a good slave, then you _might_ just receive a proper mercy killing and burial. Well, maybe." Her mouth stretched into an ugly, menacing, and plain out condescending grin.

_So it's not guaranteed?_ Stripekit thought, but he kept his mouth shut. Mogul would probably already think that she'd made it too obvious, and she was not likely to be kind to him if he spoke out now. He was, at least, sensible enough to realize that.

"I-I understand, Master," he stammered.

"Good, good," Mogul purred. "Midnight?"

The black tom cat gazed calmly up at her. "Yes?"

"You will guard our slave tonight, and make sure he doesn't fall asleep," she ordered him.

"Yes, Mogul." Midnight dipped his head.

"Wh-What am I supposed to do?" Stripekit squeaked out as Mogul's cronies slowly herded him closer to the body of Lilypaw.

"You," Mogul breathed softly, menacingly, into his ear, "will sit by this body for the entire night. You might as well get acquainted with all of your possible punishments, and this is, much indeed, just one."

"Wait! But—" Stripekit watched in helpless horror as Mogul abruptly turned around and exited the small area, with Midnight taking up the space to get out once all of the other cats were gone. Stripekit was trapped.

"Be _quiet_!" Midnight hissed. "_Slave_," he added pointedly.

Stripekit simply hunkered down in the middle of the clearing, next to the body, and shivered. What in StarClan's name was he supposed to do now?


End file.
